By David Leadbetter
Photo Illustration By Jim Luft
February 2008
If you're hitting crooked drives, an adjustment to tee height can straighten your shots.
Slicers swing down too steeply at the ball, creating too much backspin and sidespin. And if their slices are ballooning, they instinctively tee the ball lower, thinking it will stop the pop-up. This only causes them to swing steeper to get down to the ball.
If you fight a slice, you have to shallow out your swing path. You need to feel as if you're hitting up on the ball, and teeing it higher will promote that. At address, at least half the ball should be above the top of the clubhead. This encourages you to swing more from the inside (above, right) and to stay back and sweep the ball off the tee.
Hookers, on the other hand, tend to swing too far from the inside and get the club trapped behind them. From there, they have to use their hands to release the club, which, if overdone, produces a hook. Teeing it lower will keep the club more in front of your body on the downswing, helping you swing to the ball on a straighter path (above, left).
Based at ChampionsGate near Orlando, David Leadbetter operates 28 golf academies worldwide. Click here for more tips from Leadbetter.
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